


Our Little Secret

by Rigen97



Category: Hyouka & Kotenbu Series
Genre: F/F, F/M, non canon ships is better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-15 05:04:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4593867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rigen97/pseuds/Rigen97
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Houtarou had never realized his feelings. Maybe because he'd never tried to really think about it, or because he'd successfully pushed all of those feelings in the back of his mind. One impulsive decision, however, broke his composure and the only choice left is to admit his feelings toward Ibara.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Little Secret

**Author's Note:**

> pfff, I'd always seen Ibara as beter match for Oreki. Please comment, review, and give kudos if you liked it!

I didn't know what happened, but it was afterschool and I was alone with Ibara in the club room, a rare things since usually it's me and Chitanda. And the next thing I know is I kissed her. A _deep_ one, on top of that.

I didn't even know what am I thinking back then, but the pieces had miraculously fall into the place, and I _just did it_. I'm not usually impulsive kind of person, heck, I'd never done something without thinking before, but now I just can't think clearly. Maybe it's because it's snowing outside, or maybe the heater is malfunctioning for a while, or I was just lost my mind for that single moment. Either way, my mind had stopped working.

Ibara's face turned burning red when she realized what had happened. "O-Oreki, what have _you done?_ " a hypocrite remark, typical of Ibara. I'm sure as heck _she_ was enjoying it.

"S-Sorry?"

"Sorry won't cut it! You! What have you done!" She pointed her finger toward me, and then hung her head. "Sorry, Fuku-chan, I cannot give you my first...."

"Can't we just forget this? Just pretend it never happened or something...."

"Pretend what never happened, Houtarou?" Satoshi suddenly asked while he and Chitanda walked casually into the club room.

"It's nothing, really. Just something embarrassing that just happened to me and I prefer Ibara not to tell anyone." I shot Ibara a _don't-tell-them-or-we-both-die_ looks.

"Yeah, it's really embarrassing that I didn't mind agreeing to him this time." darn her face is still burning red, at this rate Satoshi with his wicked sharp observation would found out something. I gotta change the topics.

"Where have you been, Chitanda?"

"Oh, I was just bringing some books to the faculty office when Fukube-kun meet me on the coridor."

"Try to hide something from me, aren't you Houtarou?" I'd never hated his sharp observation skill more than I do now.

"Huh? Oreki-kun is hiding something? What is that Oreki-kun? I'm curious!" I'd never able to refuse answering to her drill, especially when she's clinging so close to me, but now I'm determined not to answer to her questions. I saw Satoshi grinning behind her, while Ibara's face still blushing.

"It's nothing important, just forget about it!"

"Oreki-kun!" she pouted. I shot a look to Satoshi, begging him to stop this. He looked at me with _you owe me an explanation_ looks.

"Chitanda, I think we should stay out of that." "But Fukube-kun...." Satoshi whispered something that must be really indecent and shattering any mental images Chitanda had about me, because the next second her face is turning even brighter red than Ibara. I looked at his smirking face, regretting my own decision.

"M-Mayaka-chan.... I-I'm sorry!"

"huh? For what, Chii-chan?" Chitanda leaned closer to Ibara, undoubtedly retelling what Satoshi had told her, because I could see Ibara's face turning from embarrassed to holding out a laugh. I'm amazed at Satoshi's ability to gather all his willpower to prevent him from burst out laughing. With a quick eye contacts I give him a subtle hint of my murderous intent.

"Now if you excuse me," I quickly stood up, put back my book into my pocket and rushed out with my bag hung over my shoulders. Walking through the snowy roads with really nothing to think of made me remember the actual reason Ibara and me ends up in that awkward situation. I wonder how'll that turned out if I'd kissed Chitanda instead.... no, losing Satoshi's trust is already more than I could afford.

\---The Next Day---

Fortunately, it's Saturday. Which means I could avoid Satoshi for a full two days. I was on my defult setting for winter, that's curling inside the _kotatsu_ and binge-watching anything that come on the TV. Except that my stupid mind decided that I have to think about Ibara and every single details of her that I accidentally observed.

When I couldn't bear thinking about her any longer without getting crazy, I stepped into the phone and pressed her number.

"Mayaka Ibara here" I'm flinched when I heard her voice. Then I realized I didn't even know what I wanted to tell her.

"Uh, Ibara? This is Oreki."

"Ah, Oreki! I'm hanging up." her words were as cold as the falling snow outside.

"Wait, Ibara. Can we meet somewhere? At the cafe maybe?"

"Huh? What for? Besides it's snowing outside, Oreki."

"There's something that I wanted to talk to you, and I know I'm going to be crazy if I don't talk to you immediately!" I don't know why, but I blurted out everything I could thought of.

"It's rare for you to be this persistent, but okay, I have nothing to do anyway. The bill is on you. See ya in 15 minutes"

"Wait..." she hung up the phone without even waiting for my answer.

I walked lazily over the snowy road. Kamiyama wasn't exactly known for it's heavy snow, but it's still cold when I got outside, like, _really_ cold. I tighten my trench coat, before realizing I'm already right in front of the cafe I supposed to meet with Ibara. My heart pounded heavily, and I stepped in.

"Took you long enough" Ibara sat on the corner, sipping hot chocolate _on her sweet and gorgeous lips_ , no, wait, what am I thinking?

I ordered another cup of hot chocolate and a strawberry shortcake for both of us. Then Ibara looked at me right in the eyes.

"So, spit it out. What did you wanted to tell me that you have to drag me to this cafe?"

My face felt really hot "I'm sorry for yesterday"

"Oh that, right. For hardly the first time, you've piqued my interest. Oreki, what happened with you? It wasn't like you at all, to suddenly kiss me like that. I might've understood if you liked me before, but you didn't, so there's something that's absolutely wrong. Just tell me what's troubling you, I'm all ears." For once, I didn't heard even the slightest sound of sarcasm on her voice. She talked like she really _worried_ about me, which is almost worse.

"You weren't angry with me?"

"Oh, I am angry," She promised while taking a brief pause to take another sip of her drink "But the whole _I'm going to kill you for kissing me_ stuff could wait untill I found out the stupid reason why you took my first kiss away." Should've guessed as much from Ibara, but I cannot think clearly near her since yesterday.

We stayed at silence for some long minutes untill our orders came. Then at least there are sounds between us, the clasping of fork and knife against the plate, for some short minutes untill we both finished the shortcakes. And then there's no running away anymore.

"Ibara, are you worried about me?"

"Not as much as I worried about myself, but yeah. I can't deny that you are my friend."

"Should've expected no less from you."

"Get to the point, Oreki."

"Somehow,I cannot stop thinking about you. No matter what am I doing, you just popped into my head. This is the first time a thought reappear so persistently inside my mind. Even when I tried to forget about you, I just _can't_ " She almost dropped her mug to the table, snapped out just split seconds before it collided with the table.

"No way. You can't forget me like, _at all?_ " She looked straight into my eyes.

"Yes, that's right."

"Oreki Houtarou," She paused for a while "It's a shame, but I had to tell you that you had fallen in love. And with _me_ , of all people." She said that with a smile, and then I realized that was a genuine smile, not a sarcastic smirks she usually gave me.

"Wait, you're serious?" I wrapped my hands around my head "No, _NO!_ That cannot be true! Last time I checked I...."

"Liked Chitanda, yes, I could tell that much" She snapped through my words "It hurts me a little that you won't accept the truth about you'd fallen in love with me, but it affect you more than it did to me." She stood up. "I'll go to the bathroom, think about it for a while."

I did a quick fact gathering while she was on the bathroom. First, judging on how I react to her and the persistence of the thought about her, there are over 70% possibility that she's right. Second, she doesn't look bothered by that, nor she tried to stop my feelings. Third, in Chitanda's case, at most she's just felt like a little sister, a pretty _annoying_ one at that, so I deffinitely didn't love Chitanda.

"So" Ibara returned to her seat "had you thought about something?"

"I'm suck at this"

"I know" She smiled and my heart skipped a beat. "But that's what made me _love_ teasing you"

"If you keep smiling like that I could really fall for you, you know?"

"As if you hadn't yet" She took the last sip, and I'm sure as heck she was holding herself from laughing out loud. "Care to take me home?" she asked, still with her pure smile that convinced me more, that tell my heart _I was madly in love._

"You're cruel, Ibara. If you're going to broke my heart anyway, why don't tell me now?" I stood up "Well, either way, I think walking you home wouldn't be the worst thing to do"

She didn't even tried to hold her laugh now, making several pair of eyes looked at us. "C'mon, let's talk on the road"

We walked in silence, untill naturally, Ibara talked to me. "So, I got two boys fallen in love with me, huh? I didn't want to admit it, but it's rare for me to be this famous."

"Hey, Ibara, will you still chase after Satoshi?" _C'mon, just say it you pathethic slug_ "I didn't see any benefit on doing it."

"Yeah, maybe you're right" She said with gloomy tones, before smirked towards me "Or it's just you trying to take me away from Fuku-chan"

"As I said, you're cruel, Ibara. You just wanted to hear me say that, don't you? Wanted me to surrender and say that I lost this time, that your deductions are right, isn't it?" She didn't say anything, but her face was gloomy, even more than the winter skies.

"Did you any better? You forced me to think about Fuku-chan, even though you know that that'll hurt me."

In the middle of that snowy road, ignoring everyone else who passed by, I hugged Ibara.

"Okay, you win. I'm _madly in love_ with you, Ibara. Now go on, laugh at me, slap me, or anything, just _don't cry_ " To my surprise, she tightened her arms around my waist, tears rolling down her cheek.

I softened my gaze, and I smiled "Didn't I told you not to cry?".

"Took you long enough to finally said that, Oreki." She wiped her tears and then whispered, "I love you too, Houtarou"

\---Monday, Two days later, Afterschool at the Classic Club room---

"We're all here huh? I and Mayaka was a bit absorbed at our respective club that we sometimes forgot to came here...."

"Ah, since everyone is here I'm going to clarify something to both of you, Chitanda and Satoshi." It immediately dawned into their minds that I'm going to talk about Friday, and Chitanda's face turned bright red.

"W-What is that, Oreki-san?" _What with the change in honorific? Well, I'll save that for later._

"The thing is, I confessed to Ibara last Friday, and she'd accepted me on Saturday. That, is the secret I kept from you, and anything you heard from Satoshi is guaranteed lies." Ibara's face is blushing, Satoshi's expression changed to stern and cold, but the most surprising is Chitanda. Her tears rolled down her cheek even though her expression hadn't changed at all.

"Chii-chan?" Ibara's face turned into worried expression. "What happened?"

"huh?" Chitanda seems to snaps out of it, wiping out her tears. "No, nothing. Congratulations, Mayaka-chan!" She forced a smile, but tears keep coming down her cheek.

Ibara hugged her from behind. "I'm sorry I hadn't considered your feeling, Chii-chan. I'll break with him right away" _Hey!_

Much to my surprise, Chitanda _kissed_ Ibara. Not in her forehead or in her cheek like girls would do, but in her _lips._

Satoshi stood up, still with gloomy expression, and then he hit my face. I'd predicted that much, but I rarely got hit so I didn't predicted how much it would hurt. Well, it turned out to hurt like _F._

"Why...." he gritted his teeth "Why hadn't you told me before!" he lunged to me, I sidestepped him and used his own momentum to knock him down.

"I didn't even realized it until last Friday!" I glanced over to Ibara and Chitanda, still locked in a deep kiss. "Look, I'm sorry, Satoshi...."

He stood up and smiled to me, then he sighed. "I'd never thought the entire Classic club would fall on same person. Aren't you lucky, Ibara. And to think I'm the only one who hadn't kissed you...."

My face turned deep red instantly "You knew?"

"Of course. Ibara told me with her seriously worried tone."

"Sorry, Houtarou. I just felt it'd be unfair if Satoshi was to be left out." I sighed.

"So, Chitanda." Chitanda still sat on her chair, with her head lung low, like she wanted to vanish from this world. Naturally, I aproached her. And before I could said anything, she hugged me, no, she practically _jumped_ into me.

"It's not fair. I'm also in love with you, Oreki-kun" She turned her face up, her swollen eyes locking with mine "But I guess it's too late, huh? I should confessed earlier." She forced a smile on her face. I run my hands through her hairs while Ibara and Satoshi left the room after talking about something I can't hear, something about Manga Society and Sewing Club, but that's the least of my problem.

We stayed like that for another minutes untill I cannot resist the urge to ask. "Chitanda, I wanted to ask something."

"Huh? What's it, Oreki-kun?"

"Why'd you kissed Ibara?" Her face turned deep red.

"That's...." She didn't continue her words.

"Accident? Just because there are chances, not because any particular reason?" I supplied her with my own reasons

"I, no, I'm" No, wait, that's impossible,isn't it?

"You were _curious_ about _that,_ weren't you?" Her face turned even deeper red, confirming my suspicion. I almost laughed.

"Don't tease me, Oreki-kun!" She pouted, but that doesn't fit her face with her red eyes. She smiled instead. "Yeah, I'm curious about that."

She released her hands from me, turning to the windows. "I wonder if this feeling would gone someday...." another tears rolled down her cheek.

"I'm sorry, Chitanda. I really am."

"I trusted you, Oreki-kun. And I believe you had no slightest intent to hurt my feelings." She sighed, and then looks directly on my eyes. "Let's focus on what ahead of us, the continuity of Classic Clubs. That way I could distract myself from my feelings, even forget it completely."

"I won't stop answering your question, Chitanda."

"And I had no intention to stop asking you question any time soon, Oreki-kun."

"Just call me Oreki please." We both walked out of the Classic Club room to Ibara and Satoshi that waited outside, with smile on all our faces.

\---END---


End file.
